The top ten schools in several categories are front and center in the USN report. There is other good performance outside the upper extreme, such as one school I found in a large Floridian city: 96% graduation rate; 64.4% college readiness; 84% AP participation with 69% success; and 71% reading and 66% math proficiency.

That school ranks 29th among all Florida schools and 343rd in the nation. However, this “best” school still graduates 96% of students when 29% are not reading at the level and 34% have trouble with arithmetic. It makes one wonder. It should make one suspicious.

Then, there are the “worst” schools. I skewered them recently in a related article. Please pardon any caustic effect therein. The worst offender districts spend more money than the average while delivering single-digit proficiency results. I think it’s safe to say “fraud” again.

The situation, the fraud is much worse than just poor test results. The whole basis and structure of the public schools in this country is so out of touch with American values that placing children in many or most of our schools is tantamount to child abuse. Seriously. The American model, in many states, is built on the fraud and historic bigotry of Blaine Amendment meddling. A beginning based on hating Catholics. Then, segregation and the hampering of black achievement. Next, integration, both of students and of plans to lower expectations and results. No free thinking citizens produced, just barely competent and obedient worker drone units. That was then. Now, the schools have become prisons.

I’ve been to more than a few schools recently. And I’ve been in more jails and prisons (on professional business…) than the average. There really is little difference. To convert a prison into a school, just add some desks. To make a school into a literal prison, just add bars to the windows. Beyond the physical similarities, there is congruence in the treatment of the inmates. And, in many places, the students literally have fewer rights, less freedom that prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. Click here, read, and think about the application of these principles to your child’s school: Basic Rules and Protocols. In addition to suspicious, you should now be getting angry.

Knowing the colleges today, it wasn’t at all surprising to hear that the Reed College (OR) infestation known as “Reedies Against Racism” are successfully purging the white Western authors out of a Western Civ class. “Readin’ be raciss!” is, I think, their cry.

In another, saner age, tossing the Greeks and Romans out of any intro to humanities class would have amounted to heresy, idiocy, and intolerable intellectual dishonesty. Now it’s trendy.

And it really doesn’t matter much. Or it won’t in a few years. If the patterns in secondary education (here meaning middle junior high and high schools) hold, then none of the very near future “students” will be able to read. Or comprehend basic math.

Sixty-five percent of the eighth graders in American public schools in 2017 were not proficient in reading and 67 percent were not proficient in mathematics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress test results released by the U.S. Department of Education.

The results are far worse for students enrolled in some urban districts.

Among the 27 large urban districts for which the Department of Education published 2017 NAEP test scores, the Detroit public schools had the lowest percentage of students who scored proficient or better in math and the lowest percentage who scored proficient or better in reading.

Only 5 percent of Detroit public-school eighth graders were proficient or better in math. Only 7 percent were proficient or better in reading.

One honestly has to ask, with 5 and 7 percent competency rates, what the hell is the point? Imported from Detroit? No thanks, you can keep it.

In perspective and preemptive answer to the “need more money” malarkey: in 2017 Detroit registered 45,511 “students”. Their 2017 budget totaled $638.4 million. See: 2017 Budget, as Adopted. That means, and I know this would be hard for Detroit eighth graders to grasp, they spent $14,027.38 per student. For the “.38” I rounded up, which means … nevermind.

WaPo said the US average spending per student was $10,700 in 2013. A run through the old CPI calculator gives a 2017 average of $11,283. (A Calculator is this thing invented by white Western racists to … nevermind).

Thus, and I know this is really hard, Detroit spent 124% the national average on each of its “students.” That’s 24% more. “2” and “4” are even numbers. “%” means “percentage,” per-cent-age. That’s a proportional relationship between numbers. Consult Archimedes, Ptolemy, or Newton. No, don’t consult them, the Reedies say not to…

To make this as plain as possible: Detroit spent more on its “students” and still got laughable results.

How many Detroit teachers were fired for this atrocity? My guess is somewhere close to zero. Zero – which, in a year or two, may equal the exact number of Detroit “students” who can read their own names and recite their own ages without resort to digital summation.

*See: I use a little sarcastic humor in an attempt to lighten up what is otherwise complete and utter depressing bullshit. Not working, is it?*

Not much works, nationwide. A chart of State reading readiness:

CNS.

Way to go, Taxachusetts! Just a wee bit more effort and a tiny fractional majority (so sorry for the continued rubbing in of the advanced calculus-speak) of the young mushheads will get the nuances of Sally, Dick, and Jane and their tireless work running Spot.

Mississippi: At Least We Ain’t New Mexico!

New Mexico: You’re a disgrace to Old Mexico. (Seriously, MX had a 94.47% literacy rate in 2017).

Working, toying with the myth that increased funding raises test scores (and, presumably, learning retention), to get Detroit up to Mexican levels of literacy, they would need to spend about $189,000 per student per year. Over 13 years, K – 12, that’s $2,457,000 – without compounding any interest. It might be, if it was affordable, better to just set that sum aside for each “student” in an idiot trust.

Either way, the idiot part seems certain.

Now, this isn’t to condemn all education in America, even the government-sponsored variety. But it sheds light on a dark, disturbing subject.

In contrast, homeschool parents spend around $900 per year for each of their students (not in quotes). I don’t know what level of competency they get for that kind of money but I’ll bet it’s better than 7%. Better than 49%. Probably on par with Mexican standards.

How to fix this?

Abolish the schools. Or defund the fire out of them. Or watch the spiral continue to the point that SJW projectionist racists won’t even know what to be outraged by next. Think of the SJWs“students” children.

It’s not a pretty story. Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math. Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.

The atrocious NAEP performance is only a fraction of the bad news. Nationally, our high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means high school diplomas, which attest that these students can read and compute at a 12th-grade level, are conferred when 63 percent are not proficient in reading and 75 percent are not proficient in math. For blacks, the news is worse. Roughly 75 percent of black students received high school diplomas attesting that they could read and compute at the 12th-grade level. However, 83 percent could not read at that level, and 93 percent could not do math at that level. It’s grossly dishonest for the education establishment and politicians to boast about unprecedented graduation rates when the high school diplomas, for the most part, do not represent academic achievement. At best, they certify attendance.

Summarized in a sentence: Two-thirds of American high school graduates are functionally illiterate. This should shock and dismay more than just the writing set.

The people almost seem okay with this. It’s like another great George Carlin skit:

Carlin/YouTube.

America’s national average IQ is falling decade by decade. This even as the children suffer more and more “education.” Some, like Georgia’s potential next Governor, Stacey Abrams (a great fiction writer, BTW), want universal, “free” college for everyone. What’s the point. Why go to college or even to high school if the result is a majority that can’t read or do basic math?

Various peoples of the older world had less formal education but were on average smarter than modern Americans. Such was the case in Victorian England. The verbosity and concomitant popularity of Varney the Vampire bears this out: what would be a “difficult” read by today’s low standards was immensely popular with the street urchin, drop-out boys and young men on the streets of 19th century London. Why? How?

It’s not definitively provable but it is suspected that the average IQ in Plato’s Athens was around 125 (SB or Wechsler) – 2 standard deviations above America’s average today (maybe three above tomorrow…). That was the average, with half being even higher. How many standardized tests were those kids back then subjected to? None, likely.

And as our system continues to fail and to fail more spectacularly, the only answer from the establishment is more and more of the same.

We’ll get more of the same on all fronts. More fraud. More failure. Look for it in next year’s report card.

Yesterday, in a headline for FP, I celebrated the departure of Rex Tillerson, former Secretary of State and the man who ushered in the brave new age of the Boy Scouts of America. But it’s really a mixed bag.

Tillerson never belonged anywhere near government power. His firing is a good thing. A liberal friend rightly pointed out that Trump has the highest and fastest rate of administrative turnover in history. It’s does look like disarray. Oddly, by his own list, leaving aside some major points (Obamacare, the wall, locking HER up, etc.), Trump is actually accomplishing his agenda. If it works…

However, with the cabinet positions, aides, and so forth, the turnover is a mixed bag. We seem to lose one deep state, globalist idiot only to have another step right in to take his place. Seems like it spreads.

The newly nominated Sec. State, replacing T-Rex, in the former Director of the CIA. Do we really want the head of secret police/paramilitary force representing us to the world? Might that not send a mixed message?

The new, nominated Director of the CIA is the former Deputy Director, Gina Haspel. If you’ve never heard of her, that’s probably because you watch America’s mainstream, lamestream, report no real facts media. Stop that. Get all your news and entertainment here!

Anyway, Gina is a career employee of the company, a former honcho for NCS, perhaps the most dangerous and unaccountable part of the deep state. The woman is “quite literally a war criminal.”

She ran the notorious CIA “black site” in Thailand. You’ve probably not heard much about that. It was (is) only one of the many places where the USA, beacon of virtue, engages in illegal torture of enemy combatants (defined as whomever the President says is…). This has been standard operating procedure under the current and past two administrations (Duuuuuuh-wa, no hope and no change, MAGA).

This practice and those like would, if conducted by any other government, constitute actionable offenses against humanity. There has been limited legal action already. The international community has little sway over the US with its thousands of operable nukes. And there is NO justice left in America’s courts. So, what sent Nazis to the gallows (on trumped-up, ex post facto charges and no due process at all), the US gets a pass on. Exceptionalism or something.

And, even honest CIA killers admit this hideous treatment of prisoners doesn’t work. Abu Zubaydah, in US “custody” for something like 15 years, with no rights, and no hope, was horribly battered and abused only to have it discovered he knew nothing and was not a threat. Still at Club GitMo though.

“Thems tarr-ists,” the unwashed roar, “who cares?” What part of “whomever the President says” don’t they get. It can be and has been US citizens.

I’ve been asking of late why Trump doesn’t apply such Draconian “justice” to the globalists, deep staters, and treasoners. Why not release the tortured, no threat, know-nothings, and make room for bankers, Congress Critters, judges, and people like Gina? You know, real threats who’ve actually done harm.

Instead Trump does the opposite, continually appointing rather than prosecuting.

And, back to this sh!t not working: the real terror threats are here, not out there in the sandbox or some other exotic locale. ISIS-inspired Corey Johnson comes to mind, if you look through the alternative media:

A 17-year-old named Corey Johnson claimed his Muslim faith commanded him to fatally stab a 13-year-old boy during a sleepover and severely injured another 13-year-old along with his mother who was stabbed more than a dozen times.

Palm Beach Florida authorities said the attacker confessed to the killing, attempted killings, and the motive of Islamic Jihad. After killing one teen and stabbing two more people Johnson barricaded himself in a room when police arrived. He was taken into custody at about 8 a.m. by the city’s SWAT team.

Palm Beach isn’t located in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, nor North Korea. And Johnson looks like a shaggy, disgruntled American everyteen. We don’t have to look that far for our boogeymen.

Justice in Amerika. New Yorker.

Platonically speaking, we’re passing rapidly from Democracy to Tyranny. Could we at least get a decent tyrant out of it, someone “cool?”

Another day in the Big Apple, another visit from ISIS. Luckily, this one – all the way from Bangladesh (via Brooklyn) – was incompetent. I always get the sulfur/charcoal/saltpeter ratio mixed up. You?

Taxi driver and/or electrical worker and/or homicide enthusiast, Akayed Ullah, arrived at NYC’s main bus terminal early this morning on a mission. Seems his plan was to detonate a homemade bomb in the middle of rush hour. The device had other ideas, detonating prematurely and pitifully. *POOF!*

The explosion happened around 7:20am, in an underground tunnel linking the Port Authority Bus Terminal to Times Square.

The suspect, identified as 27-year-old Akayed Ullah, took the A subway train to Port Authority, got off and was walking east towards Times Square when a ‘low-tech’ explosive attached to his body with Velcro and zip ties partially exploded.

A photo from the scene shows Ullah crumpled up on the ground of the tunnel as police took him into custody. He was then rushed to Bellevue Hospital to be treated for serious burns and cuts to his abdomen and hands. Jack Collins, Sean Gallagher and Anthony Manfredini have been identified as the hero Port Authority Police officers who took Ullah into custody.

Three other people were also injured in the blast for minor injuries like ringing in the ears and headaches. But they were able to talk themselves to local hospitals.

Crafty New Yorkers: talking themselves to the ER: probably on the cellular.

Many speculate he was angered over the recently announced plan to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This would fit with the general reaction of many in his home country, Hamas, and various American and European liberals. He told police he wanted revenge.

Akayed Ullah, 27, who is from Bangladesh and was living in Brooklyn, told authorities he was trying to exact vengeance for Israeli actions in Gaza — where four Palestinians have been killed amid violent protests and airstrikes since President Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel last week, police sources told CNN.

Of course, per my First Law of Terrorism, Ullah was on someone’s radar before today. At the very least they had to look, glancingly, at him seven years ago when he tagged along behind … whomever from Bangladesh.

The miracles of post-1965 chain migration never cease. Car 54, where are you?

An added benefit was that, once again, Americans were treated to seeing their streets look like some Banana Republic:

Perceived security – after the fact. Daily Mail.

Friends, as terrible as this incident was, there is still time to act. That is, if we have the will. We can (and should) ban “assault-style” pipes. I’ve been a hunter for over 30 years and I can tell you that no sportsman needs a pipe. Your pipe will be useless (and pretty silly) going up against an Abrams tank or a nuclear carrier. Only the military needs “hi-capacity” pipes of this nature. Maybe plumbers…

Top White House and GOP leaders have agreed to raise the lowest individual tax rate from 10 to 12 percent, paired with doubling the standard deduction, 5 senior Republicans tell us.

Why this matters: Trump intends to sell the proposal tomorrow as a populist “tax cut.” But as recently as yesterday top Republicans on Capitol Hill were nervous as they got word that Trump wasn’t entirely thrilled with the product that had been hashed out in immense secrecy for weeks (with two members of his administration, Gary Cohn and Steven Mnuchin, working with GOP leaders.)

Late last night Republicans close to the process felt more confident that Trump had come around to supporting the framework — despite his misgivings about the corporate rate not being low enough and about the political risks of raising the lowest rate (even though many more people will now pay no tax because of the increased deduction, meaning they can accurately call it a tax cut for the middle class as well as for the wealthy.)

Big picture details: Republicans plan to collapse the number of brackets from seven to three. The standard deduction would almost double to $12,000 for a single filer and $24,000 for married couples, meaning Trump can accurately argue that many more low income earners would pay no tax under his plan. As we previously reported, the top tax bracket would fall from 39.6% to 35%.

Yes, but: Trump won’t go into great detail when he talks about the tax plan tomorrow in Indiana, leaving plenty of negotiating room for the tax-writing committees in the House and Senate. As of yesterday morning Trump hadn’t signed off on the final product, and as with all policy announcements involving Trump, Republican Hill leaders will be holding their breaths to some extent until the president actually utters the words. Speaking with conservative groups at the White House yesterday Trump, reassured them of his commitment when he gushed about the “tax cut” he was planning to unveil.

Technically, rate-wise, this is an increase for the poor and a cut for the wealthy. In reality, if any of this is true, it will mean less of an actual burden for all. That might make sense – more sense than the GOP Obama-Trump-Ryan-GrahamCare repealreplaceamendmentmeddling whatever, which has once again failed.

We’ll know more tomorrow or next year or, certainly, by the mid-terms. Then, suddenly, all the failure will be touted as smashing success. This is why many other countries have more than two parties.

Totally in charge and utterly impotent. The Dems don’t even have a mouthpiece at present – not that they need one now. And those who voted LP, etc. threw their votes away? Maybe it’s time for an Alt-Right party.

Roberts never disappoints. Today he masterfully interweaves the various, total failures of post-American society into a narrative even the denizens of the Cave might be able to follow.

There is no sign that American leadership in any area is actually capable of thought. Consider Wall Street and corporate leadership. To boost share prices Wall Street forced all corporations to desert their home country and move the production of goods and services sold to Americans offshore to where labor and regulatory costs were lower. The lower costs raised profits and share prices. Wall Street threatened resistant corporations with takeovers of the companies if they refused to move abroad in order to increase their profits.

Neither Wall Street nor corporate boards and CEOs were smart enough to understand that moving jobs offshore also moved US consumer incomes and purchasing power offshore. In other words, the financial and business leadership were too stupid to comprehend that without the incomes from high value-added, high productivity US jobs, the American consumer would not have the discretionary income to continue in his role as the economy’s driver.

The Federal Reserve caught on to Wall Street’s mistake. To rectify the mistake, the Fed expanded credit, allowing a buildup in consumer debt to keep the economy going on credit purchases. However, once consumer debt is high relative to income, the ability to buy more stuff departs. In other words, credit expansion is not a permanent fix for the lack of consumer income growth.

A country whose financial and business leadership is too stupid to understand that a population increasingly employed in part-time minimum wage jobs is not a big spending population is a country whose leadership has failed.

It is strictly impossible to boost profits by offshoring jobs without also offshoring US consumer incomes. Therefore, the profits from offshoring are temporary. Once enough jobs have been moved offshore that aggregate demand is stymied, the domestic market stagnates and then declines.

As I have demonstrated so many times for so many years, as has John Williams (shadowstats.com), the jobs reports from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics are nonsense. The jobs in the alleged recovery from June 2009 are largely low-income domestic service jobs and the product of the theoretical birth/death model. The alleged recovery from the 2007-08 financial crisis is the first recovery in history in which the labor force participation rate declined. Labor force participation rates decline when the economy offers scant job opportunities, not when employment opportunities are rising.

What we know about US jobs is that the jobs are increasingly part-time minimum wage jobs. According to a presstitute news report that might or might not be true, there are only 12 counties in the entirety of the United States in which a person can rent a one-bedroom home on a minimum wage income.

Roberts knows, I know, you know, that these idiots will never learn from their overwhelming mistakes. They have completely abandoned reality, you and yours with it. The answer to any of it, from the fools, is always more of the same.

Must we all have a Charlton Heston moment? Is That Baloney.

One wonders how long this charade will go on. The experts seem to think, at a maximum, another 16 to 23 years. Let’s call it 20, with an inside safety margin of 15: you have 15 years left to prepare for something not seen since 476 AD.

You say you want a revolutionWell, you knowWe all want to change the worldYou tell me that it’s evolutionWell, you knowWe all want to change the world

–Revolution, The Beatles, 1968.

Whatever you want, you’re not going to get it from the Republican Party – unless, of course, what you want is more and bigger government. Lawrence Vance explains, today:

Another Republican revolution has now failed.

A Republican revolution can be defined as a time when Republicans gained control of both Houses of Congress and therefore were in a position to severely limit the federal government.

There have been five Republican revolutions in modern times, and they have all ended in failure.

One hates to write off the Trump Train just yet but that’s what Vance has done – and with excellent reasons. I think I’m down to 1/2 of 1% of a shred of hope, a fool’s hope.

He gets right to the failures of this year, followed by a scolding for “conservatives” and a lesson about the DNC:

First, the failure to repeal Obamacare. …

Second, the failure to cut back the warfare state. …

And third, the failure to cut back the welfare state. …

Are there still conservatives and libertarians left in America who are gullible enough to believe that Republicans are any better than Democrats? The Republicans are welfare/warfare statists. The only difference between them and the Democrats is that the Republicans talk about the Constitution, the free market, and limited government while they ignore the Constitution, the free market, and limited government. At least the Democrats are honest statists.

Instead of simply repealing Obamacare as promised, they appear to be giving us (slowly) … uh … whatever the replacement thing is…

Another peace candidate found the joy of bombs, missiles, and drones.

Another joke of a “budget” that might have been written by Karl Marx.

Meanwhile serious problems manifest. The barbarians aren’t at the gates – they’ve smashed through and more keep coming. This is both figurative and literal.

I mentioned something about this before the last election. I will probably mention it again. Please stop falling for the “two-party” charade. Well, actually, at this point it really doesn’t matter anymore. Just know you’re being lied to by the Atlanta Falcons of politics.

Given the popularity of my postings on the law, generally and regarding specific topics, and given the inclination of so many people to ask me about becoming a lawyer and what it’s like, I thought I would write something about legal education in America. It won’t be pretty but it will paint a good overall picture of the modern training lawyers undergo. First, however, I thought I would write something about the undergraduate experience which precedes law school. That’s what this article concerns. It is mainly drawn from my experiences at the University of Georgia in the early – mid 1990’s.

As my personal collegiate experience is somewhat dated (ugh….), I have tried to incorporate a little news concerning more modern college education as well. So, this piece is really about my personal muddling with an updated, universal background. I hope it serves as a guide of sorts for those entering college or already there and struggling to decide what to make of the situation. For those you who have already completed your formal education, I hope this resonates with you. It’s up to us to enlighten the younger generations so that they may achieve their full potential.

College today is much the same as it was back then. Modern students have a wealth of on-line information to assist them in picking the right school and program for them. I wished we had had that. I recently stumbled across a fantastic website that goes beyond the normal rankings and summary guides. Check out this site: http://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/. It’s an initiative from numerous alumni to assess what, if anything, colleges teach these days. The results are eye-opening. Of the 1000 or so schools surveyed only 21 got an “A” based on required core curriculum. I’m proud to say my alma mater was among them. Several famous and pricy schools did not fare so well. Watch their video too.

(Google Images.)

Back to yours truly. I started college in 1993 immediately after graduating from high school. I applied to and was accepted to three colleges (I think it was three, I’m lazy). I got accepted to Mississippi State University (in my original home town) and the University of Georgia, where many of my relatives attended. I think the other school was UVA; I attended classes for a week as a high schooler and was most impressed.

MSU offered me a scholarship, I think it was a full ride. My dad had been a professor there and apparently they needed someone from Georgia. I probably should have accepted but, given my poor choices in college, I would have likely lost the scholarship anyway. In the end, I went to UGA. The Georgia HOPE scholarship was recently enacted at the time. My high school grades were excellent and so I would have qualified. Unfortunately, my parents made something like 50 cents over the family income maximum. The next year they raised the maximum but by then my grades were so dismal it didn’t matter. I must say I had a great time in Athens. The city is overrun with bars and hot girls and there is always something to do. Oddly, none of that matters looking back.

I have since analyzed why I did as poorly as I did in the early half of my college career. I used to blame the school and several professors in whose classes I did poorly. I have come to the conclusion though that any failings (pun intended) were my fault only. I had considered that perhaps I was not ready for college. Then again, I’m not sure what I would have done instead at that time. I wanted to continue my formal education, I just went about it all wrong. I was not true to myself.

I have devoted a whole chapter in The Time Given (not long now….) to being true to yourself. My understanding of the concept comes from my own self-betrayals. In high school and for the first few years I was at UGA I was under the delusion of the great “American dream.” George Carlin once said, “it’s a dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” I know what he meant. The dream went something like this: You go to college to get a valuable degree. The degree gets you a ticket to work for a big corporation for 30 or 40 years. By working hard for your employer you get rich and enjoy a comfy retirement. You can vacation in Destin, Florida and such.

I tried to take the dream to its extreme conclusion. I just knew I had to major in business in order to get that golden job ticket. I started out as a general business major and then switched to a speciality in real estate. UGA’s real estate program is excellent and I did learn some things in my concentration classes which came in handy at Trammel Crow and in my brief real estate sales career. I also found some of my advanced economics classes fascinating – but only from an academic standpoint. The rest of the core business classes bored the ever-loving hell out of me. My grades reflected this. I recall mornings when I remembered I had to drop classes I had not attended all semester – on the last day possible. Still figures into some of my nightmares. I recall passing finance my reading the booklet for my fancy calculator the night before the final exam. I wasted a semester in a business MIS class that covered things like floppy disks and the new-fangled internet, whatever that was. That all says something – I’m not sure what…

The “hard” problem I found with an undergraduate business degree was that you studied based on scenarios only a CEO would encounter. Then you get into the job market and discover only entry-level jobs are available. It’s kind of depressing. I really lucked out with Trammell Crow and it took me months of interviewing for scores of other positions to find. Another problem is that once you’re on the job, they retrain you completely. I’d say only 10% of what I managed to learn ended up being useful on the job.

If you want to enter business, I think it’s best to get an MBA. It also helps to study something you have connections to (the family business, etc.). Otherwise, you’re wasting your time. I wasted a lot of the stuff.

The “soft” problem I had was that I didn’t really want to be a business major. I look like a businessman but I have the heart of a history professor or a latter-day dragon slayer, neither of which benefit from a class in marketing. This was made clear to me during my senior year. For whatever reason I finished most of the required classes and had an abundance of electives to take. Out of curiosity I wound up in a number of classics (ancient Greece and Rome) and philosophy classes.

Suddenly, I was immersed in subjects that spoke to me about eternal issues I could relate to everyday American life. I also got “A” after “A” and it wasn’t hard to do. I liked the programs. I identified with the programs. I dig ancient wisdom and logical discourse more than ROI statements and accounting baselines.

It occurred to me a little late in the game to change majors and stick it out. I probably should have done that. At the time though, the same stubbornness that got me into my plight held me there. I made excuses like “I’m almost done. I need to settle, get out, and get that dream job.” Ha! The job I got was great. I foresaw myself rising in the ranks and becoming a developer, another Donald Trump. I was good at it. I thought I could even open my own business and build skyscrapers. Then, they called me one day and thanked me profusely for my hard work. I smelled a raise. Then they said the division was closing and I was no longer needed. More depression followed. This is the real American dream – you lie to yourself, waste time and money, and end up getting laid off after giving 150%. Well, it was the dream. I think most people have to settle for permanent unemployment or food stamps these days.

After a year of flopping around I headed to law school. It was my attempt to right my ship. It almost worked. I know now that while I love the concept and theory of law, present and historical, these are not good reasons to go to law school. I’ll have more on this in my coming column on the legal education racket.

I should have gotten a Ph.D. in political theory or history. Then I would have been primed for a happier career in higher education, pondering the big ideas and helping young people seek questions and answers. I’m currently trying to re-route myself that way. This blog is a grand outlet for my academic pursuits. I’m delighted by the support I have received so far. I plan to press forward regardless of what kind, if any, formal institution I end up in. I don’t mean an “institution” where I weave baskets…

Counting the four years I was locked up in high school, it’s been about 24 years getting around to being honest about my ambitions. I have been extremely lucky in the alternative. I’ve had the opportunity most people don’t get in the business and legal fields to interact with academics, statesmen, titans and ticks of all stripes. I have also been able to strike a few blows for freedom over the years. Everything happens for a reason and I have accepted my long way home.

I hope you, dear readers, find and accept yours too. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you. I genuinely like helping people. It’s really why I’m here.